Podcasts

Derrick Rose offers help paying for funeral of 6-month old Chicago girl

May 16, 2013

Frank Santos

Photo credit: dialoguemagazine.com/AP

It’s been a rough stretch for Derrick Rose lately, which was punctuated by the Chicago Bulls being eliminated from the playoffs by the Miami Heat last night. Twitter was abuzz with Derrick Rose tweets, and his mentions were something you wouldn’t want your children reading. However, sometimes we forget that things are bigger than basketball, and sports in general. In criticizing Rose, we don’t seek out some of the good things, like this story of Rose offering to help pay the funeral costs for a slain 6-month old baby in Chicago.

A 6-month-old girl died after being shot five times in Chicago on Monday afternoon while her father was reportedly standing on the curb, changing her diaper on the front seat of a minivan. It was the 62nd homicide of 2013 in the city, according to RedEye Chicago; last year, more than 500 homicides were reported in Chicago, a horrifying number that represented a massive increase over 2011.

The shooting was an alleged gang-related attempt on Jonylah’s father, Jonathan Watkins, and a fund has been started for Jonylah’s funeral proceedings. This is where Rose comes into play according to Chicago’s ABC affiliate WLS-TV:

As police search for the killer of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins, outrage over her death spreads, and the outpouring of grief includes a gesture by the Chicago Bulls‘ Derrick Rose.

Rose has offered to help pay for Jonylah’s funeral expenses. Others have come forward to donate money to a reward fund to help find the killer. Tuesday night, that reward fund stood at $11,000.

So before you troll Derrick Rose’s on twitter about his performance, or lack thereof on a basketball court, be sure you give him some credit for things like this. An innocent joke is okay, as we made on our twitter account after last night, but death threats and vulgarity aren’t appropriate when you look at the big picture.

Jonylah lost her life to senseless violence, yet people think that a game played on the basketball court determines what kind of person Rose is.

About The Author

Frank Santos - manager

6 Responses to Derrick Rose offers help paying for funeral of 6-month old Chicago girl

I appreciate the gesture by Mr. Rose, but why not donate some money to positive youth development programs in the Chicago area? Maybe, just maybe, professional athletes could use some of their millions to try and prevent these awful tragedies from happening. Of course, I am not saying things will change overnight if he were to do that, but too often, we see people in the community reacting to a death of a young person. Professional athletes everywhere, from every sport, should be using some of their good fortune to try and prevent these things from happening, rather than paying for funerals of kids whose lives were cut way too short. I think it is tremendous that he has reached out to the family, but again, I wish that pros would act sooner, rather than later.

I’m not trying to be rude here, but didn’t this happen a couple months ago? This is old news. Rose offered to pay for the funeral in March. Either this website is struggling to find news to write about, or this writer is a Derrick Rose fan and believes by regurgitating this news now he can ward off some of the hate coming to DRose right now because of he didn’t play against the Heat.

It did happen a couple of months ago, which I just found out after researching your inquiry. I thought the post said May 14th on my original source Yahoo! Sports, but it turned out to be Mar 14th. However, I would never use the tragic event and Jonylah’s death to garner traffic for my site. This story was brought to my attention when Yahoo! Sports’ author of the piece, Dan Devine, tweeted it to a fan that was bashing Rose for not playing this season.

Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.

Sports-Kings Media, LLC was founded in 2011 by three friends in Hornell, New York. We are a website dedicated to providing unique content, top-ten lists, opinions, analysis, and breaking news. Whether you’re an arbitrary or laid back sports fan, we enjoy the interaction with our readers. We’ve had our stories featured on numerous national syndicated outlets, including Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, and ESPN. Follow SK as we look ahead in the sports blogosphere.